The Soulmate Initiative: Book 1

11. Yesterday

Candice and Lavina have gotten all the suitcases and bags down to the garage and packed two cars almost to the brim, there's barely enough room in one for a driver and in the other for a driver and a passenger. Though it isn't safe or at all legal, little Maria is going to have to sit on Lavina's lap during the drive, because even if she could be in her car seat in the back, something could fall on her. Thankfully the paperwork they have been given about their new property, says it isn't too far away. When Rhodes gets out of a taxi outside the Avengers Tower, she gets to the garage and gets into the most packed car. Candice leads the way, Rhodes makes sure to drive closely behind and not lose them. They slowly drive out of the city, to where there are fields and forests, one long road going along, since getting onto this road they haven't seen any other cars. They follow that long road through a forest, then the long road continues on, but there's also a road going off to one side, Candice slows down more as they approach it, there's a sign next to it 'Private property, keep off. Trespassers will be shot on sight.' "This is the place." She turns them off the normal road and onto the side road, Rhodes follows.

LOCATION: AVENGERS MANSION

Only a few metres along the road, trees still either side, there's a large set of black double gates, Candice can now see that stretching off in both directions in the forest is a tall black fence, hidden well by the trees, only now visible because of the gate. A metre in front of the gate to the left side of the road is a box on a pole, Candice pulls up alongside it. Underneath the box is another sign 'Beware: Aggressive guard dog. Active CCTV.' On the box is a screen showing Candice's face, a camera obviously in the box, there's also one other bit of live footage showing the car's number plate and when Candice looks up at the gate, she can see a camera visible. Candice looks back at the box, as well as there being the two little screens, there are two buttons, under the red one it says 'Visitor' and under the green one it says 'Employee'. Candice rolls down the window and presses the green button, the footage disappears and there's just one screen, displaying 'Retina scan'. A beam of blue light leaves the box and scans Candice's eye, the screen then displaying 'Welcome, Candice Barton', and the gates open "Nice security system, we definitely won't be getting visitors." As soon as the gates are open, Candice drives in and Rhodes follows her, the gates starting to close once she's halfway through, causing her to speed up.

On the other side of the gates is a bit more of a road, curving left after a few more metres, forest still on either side. As they make the turn, their view changes, a few more metres ahead there is no more forest, the road opens out onto a very large field, there are three buildings present. As soon as the road leaves the forest it goes off left to a double parking spot beside a two storey building or right to a two storey building with four garage doors. Ahead of them there is no road, but there is a grey stepping-stone path, leading up to a huge four storey building, that is hidden from outsiders by the huge trees in the thick forest that is surrounding the whole field, the fencing is not visible, it seems to be a little way into the forest, so people can't see the property if they wander through the forest from the outside.

Candice heads right, towards the garage, the outside of the building is decorated with light brown stone, the four metal garage doors roll up once the car is about two metres away. Both cars are driven into the garage and everyone gets out, Rhodes lets out a whistle "I cannot wait to explore this place. We're doing that now, right? This stuff can wait in the cars?" Candice nods eagerly "Definitely." Lavina carries Maria, who looks pretty in awe of the place, too. First they explore the garage, their two cars are the first, but there's enough room for either eight cars total, or seven cars and some motorbikes. The floor is concrete, the walls are light brown and the ceiling is metal, there isn't anything in the room apart from the parking spaces and a dark brown wooden staircase. They climb the staircase up to the second level, this room has metal flooring, light brown walls and a metal ceiling. The room is just big and empty, apart from a mechanics area along one side with some dark brown wooden shelving.